If you could save someone's life, would you? Anyone's? Ali's older brother has a swastika tattooed on his knuckles, a prison ID number for nearly beating an immigrant to death, and spent his teenage years ruthlessly persecuting Ali for being gay. Blood may be thicker than water, but Ali has spent most of his life desperate to prove he is nothing like Tony. A committed vegetarian, charity-supporter, and blood donor, Ali would do anything for anyone. Ali may share parentage with Tony, but he’s determined not to share anything else if he can help it. So when Tony contracts leukaemia, and Ali is the only match for the urgently-needed bone marrow transplant, Ali is caught between two equally awful choices: to refuse and condemn a man to death, or to donate. And in donating, save the life of the man who nearly murdered Ali's Iraqi boyfriend?

Thicker Than Bone

“I don’t want someone in my house who thinks I’m unnatural and abnormal and that my relationship with my partner is anything but the best thing that ever happened to me,” Ali hissed harshly, not wanting Yazid to hear him, but footsteps sounded in the hall, and Yazid materialized in his chef’s whites, Moxie purring in his arms.


“You ought to go now,” Ali repeated coldly.


Yazid’s face creased. “What’ve I missed?”


“Nothing,” Ali snapped. “Mum, go.”


Violet sighed, and tapped one of the pamphlets she had brought with her before setting it on the table. “Think on it.”


“Just get out,” Ali said bitterly. His chest hurt. His face hurt, hot under the skin. The kitchen was swimming.


Chapter 51